OK, just watched 9 episodes of A Game of Thrones. I read the first book and I was pretty dissatisfied with it and never read any more. All I can say is I am very happy I read the first one as it made the series SUPER AWESOME.

I was absolutely hooked. I thought I would casually watch them through the next couple weeks but once I started I watched them one after another ALL DAY. I threw the kids in the other room playing computer games and was memorized. I guess there is one more episode but hell if I can remember what it is supposed to be. The closer for 9 was great.

Well, I just put the full series back on my ebook and am stopping the crappy zombie book I was reading (The First Days (As the World Dies, Book 1)). It was OK but wasn't hooked after 50 pages still. Typical run away, stop and shoot the zombies type thing. Nothing special compared to others and I may go back to it. But for now, must read A Song of Ice and Fire!

Got reminded the other day of something I loved as a kid. Bud Spencer and Terence Hill were two Italian actors that made a ton of comedic films, notably featuring fistfights. So if you want some good ole hand-to-hand fighting with a little silliness attached, give them a try!

ABC, no longer having a stranglehold on Saban. Saban, realizing that it may of made its last Ranger series, has finally released Every Single Power Ranger Episode on Netflx. (We are keeping streaming and downsizing to two disks instead of three for the same price) So given the Ranger Love in my house, you can imagine what we are watching.

This shall forever be known as the Summer of the Power Rangers!!!

WE have watched all 150 Might Morphing, all 8 Alien Rangers, all 54 of Zeo, the Turbo Movie, and are now starting on Power Rangers Turbo.

Psych - LOVE IT Goes up there with Firefly as some of my favorite dialogue. Castle - that is good for my Firefly type fix but like Psych betterSpartacus - Second season is a poor follow-up to the first...but still watched itWalking Dead - Zombies, what can I say

House - Love the sarcasm. Really gets formula driven and even my wife is coming up with drinking game scenerios (House nearly kills him, extra drink per time per episode, House tries something on them without knowing what it is, House tries everything on them, etc.) Besides the pace being about the same, the great quotes he has keeps me watching.

Resident Evil 1-4. I don't know why, but I feel compelled to re-watch those every now and then. They are neither the best nor the cheesiest of zombie movies, but they are my favorite. It may or may not have something to do with a badass Milla wielding dual kukri in the Nevada desert in #3.

Watched Prometheus over the weekend. I don't usually go to the theater, but being such a big Alien/Aliens fan...

Overall it was really good but I do have some mixed feelings. Visually, it was spectacular. Great special effects that were not overdone. I saw it in 3D and I think they did a good job of making it fairly subtle, using it to add depth to the settings that pulled me in. The designs were similar enough to the previous movies that it easily felt like the same universe without going into full on copy mode. So even though I have a rant, I still really enjoyed it.

<rant>After seeing how well the characters were fleshed out in the first 2 movies, I was disappointed at how flat and two dimensional they were (http://strolen.com/viewing/7_Things_Ive_Learned anyone?) in this one. It also seemed like there were just too many things crammed into one plot that made it seem kind of schizophrenic. There wasn't enough time to fill in the holes. I would find myself thinking things like, "Are they ever going to explain why he did that?" or "Why doesn't anyone care that she's walking around all bloody?" (I'm trying to be vague to avoid spoilers.)

The action was good but I was expecting a lot more suspense.

The weird attempt to add mythical/religious symbols and undertones kept jerking me out of the movie. I wish they would have kept to a straightforward science fiction / horror movie without trying to get all deep and philosophical. (And annoyingly religious - why did the Darwinist biologist have to be painted as such a buffoon?)</rant>

Again, I think it was an excellent movie and I'm glad I made to the theater to see it. I highly recommend it.

Ah, how I have come to love that sense of accomplishment and victory that I get when I pull the wool over the eyes of a clever player character. What DM Triumphs have you had?

Some of mine:1. Finally killing an incredibly powerful, lucky, annoying player's character.2. Finally achieving a TPK (Total Party Kill)3. Finally achieving a TPK using only traps4. Finally working out how to make it so that d**n wizard doesn't steal the spotlight all the d**n time.

Finished House. I am a sucker for his don't give a s**t sarcasm and the show formula only got old a little bit near the end.

Love Psych, Castle, and The Mentalist and bounce between them to keep them a little fresh.

Family has been watching The Big Bang Theory From season 1 for the past couple months and love it. Not sure how I would compare it to Community as they are both awesome in their own way.

Watched Homeland and American Horror Story while in Japan and they are both entertaining enough to continue. Also watched Fringe which bored me rather quickly. Same with Warehouse 13 when I tried that, both were just blah to me. I could get into Supernatural eventually but too much to watch right now. Still spoiled by X-Files as my one true love I think.

Still have to catch up with Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead which are both, obviously, awesome.

The BBC Sherlock is outstanding and end of S02 was pretty good. Haven't tried Elementary but it is on my list.

Person of Interest will keep me hooked, I guarantee, and Arrow is a nice romping Super Hero show to get that fix.

Watched the first season of Falling Skies and I liked it quite a bit. Much better than Revolution whose premise pissed me off and failed to properly prime my suspension of belief before it did all kinds of stupid crap that didn't make sense...made it through maybe 2 episodes.

I have watched all of Vampire Diaries and I think their legends and folklore are simply outstanding. Just when I think they are getting dull they come up with some kind of magic or binding that just ties it all together so nicely. I watch it just to see the vampire legends they are weaving. Lots of fun. Also watched True Blood but that chick's teeth piss me off. Only worth watching for the sex because the plot is crap.

Ah, how I have come to love that sense of accomplishment and victory that I get when I pull the wool over the eyes of a clever player character. What DM Triumphs have you had?

Some of mine:1. Finally killing an incredibly powerful, lucky, annoying player's character.2. Finally achieving a TPK (Total Party Kill)3. Finally achieving a TPK using only traps4. Finally working out how to make it so that d**n wizard doesn't steal the spotlight all the d**n time.

Last night I watched the pilot of Voyagers!. I vaguely remember watching random episodes as a wee youngling and enjoying it. Unlike some other shows of my youth that I wish I'd left in the past, I still found this one entertaining. The "brainy kid time traveling with a pretty-boy oaf" concept is fun, despite it being full of that 80's naivety. I'll probably watch more here and there, just for the fun and the nostalgia.

I've been watching Continuum on Netflix (and watched the Season 3 premier on a platform that may or may not have been legal). It was a stand in for Alphas, which I went into knowing the show ended on a cliffhanger, so it was nice to pick up on another show that's full of cliffhangers and is still airing.

The show has a lot of old sci-fi time travel tropes, but it does them well overall. The twist at the end of Season 1 was unexpected by me until about 5 minutes to the end of the episode. The show's mythology builds nicely to the point where the twists creep in with a sense of inevitability, Oedipus-like: you can time travel to the past or future, but you can't escape your destiny.

Season 2 introduced some more factionalism, which at times got a little overcomplex but there's few enough characters where you can sort them out. There's more mythology building and twists than the first season, getting more complex and intricate, with slow reveals about who's on what side (and what the sides even are).

I only watched the first two episodes of Season 3 so far. The plots start to tangle a bit, thanks to sticking with the ol' "multiple timelines" trope, and I think we're up to five or so separate factions with sometimes unclear motives. The theme music present in the first two seasons starts to grate a little bit here and feels overly dreadful.

It's a great looking show, and I appreciate that it has a strong female lead who isn't bogged down by a love interest (there is a potential one, but their relationship is a side bar without the "will they or won't they" vibe that other shows might do). I don't watch a lot of Canadian shows (it's produced and set in Vancouver), but the writing is generally sharp and with fun future tech.